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Tag: Bharti Airtel

  • 5G auctions: Govt to earn Rs 1.5 trillion from sale of 51.236 Mhz of spectrum

    5G auctions: Govt to earn Rs 1.5 trillion from sale of 51.236 Mhz of spectrum

    Mumbai: After seven days and 40 rounds of bidding, the 5G spectrum auctions concluded on Monday and the government generated revenues to the tune of Rs 1,50,173 crore from the sale of 51,236 MHz of spectrum out of 72,098 MHz total spectrum.

    “The process of allocation of spectrum shall be completed within the timeframe and 5G services are likely to be rolled out by September/October,” said the press statement.

    Telco Reliance Jio Infocomm obtained 24,740 MHz spectrum in 700, 800, 1700, 3300 MHz and 26 GHz bands and bid a total amount of Rs 88,078 crore.

    Bharti Airtel obtained 19,867.8 MHz spectrum in 900, 1800, 2100, 3300 MHz and 26 GHz bands and bid a total amount of Rs 43,048 crore.

    Vodafone Idea obtained 6,228 MHz spectrum in 1800, 2100, 2500, 3300 MHz and 26 GHz bands and bid a total amount of Rs Rs 18,799 crore.

    Adani Data Networks obtained 400 MHz spectrum in mm wave band 26 GHz and bid a total amount of Rs 212 crore.

    All the auction winners will pay the government in annual installments of Rs 13,365 crore.

    Reliance Jio Infocomm chairman Akash Ambani said, “Jio is committed to offering world-class, affordable 5G and 5G-enabled services. We will provide services, platforms and solutions that will accelerate India’s digital revolution, especially in crucial sectors like education, healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing and e-Governance.”

    Bharti Airtel MD and CEO Gopal Vittal said, “This spectrum acquisition at the latest auction has been a part of a deliberate strategy to buy the best spectrum assets at a substantially lower relative cost compared to our competition. We are confident that we will be able to deliver the best 5G experience in India in terms of coverage, speeds and latency. This will allow us to change a lot of established paradigms for both our B2C and B2B customers.”

    A statement by Vodafone Idea said, “We actively participated in the spectrum auction to strengthen our pan-India 4G footprint and embark on our 5G roll-out journey in the country in line with our long-term vision. We believe that the above spectrum acquisition will enable us to strengthen our position in our key markets and it aligns well with our long-term strategic intent.

    It further added, “We have successfully acquired mid band 5G spectrum (3300 MHz band) in our 17 priority circles and mm Wave 5G spectrum (26 GHz band) in 16 circles, which will enable us to offer a superior 5G experience to our customers as well as strengthen our enterprise offerings and provide new opportunities for business growth in the emerging 5G era. We will continue to collaborate with enterprise customers and partners in prioritising and developing 5G use cases for real-world deployments. The additional 4G spectrum acquisition in 3 circles of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Punjab will further improve the customer experience; an area where we have been consistently leading the league tables, as per various third-party reports, over the last several quarters.”

    Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani said, “The Adani Group’s foray into the industrial 5G space will allow our portfolio companies to offer a set of new add-on services that capitalizes on all the other digital segments we are building.”

    He elaborated, “Given that our portfolio is a highly distributed asset intensive investment that is all being revolutionized by sensorisation and fast becoming IoT (Internet of Things) enabled, we believe the next data surge will be created more by machines than by people as all devices get interconnected. This data will need to be streamed, stored, processed, and analysed by other machines in real time and this capability will change every single industry. It will help build a set of services that the market cannot even fully conceptualize today. This volume will be exponentially higher and generated at the edges, especially in a country like India, where the Tier 2 and 3 cities are witnessing the fastest all-round growth.”

    The government did not receive any bids for the 600 MHz spectrum band which was auctioned for the first time. The 600 MHz band is still not developed for mobile telephony but may become important in a few years.

    Telcos bid Rs 1.45 lakh crore for the highly-priced 700 MHz spectrum for which the 5G ecosystem is very well developed. The band provides a large range and good coverage. Reliance Jio obtained pan India 10 MHz spectrum.

    Participants who bid for bands between 800 to 2500 were primarily looking to augment capacity and improve 4G coverage.

    Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea obtained spectrum in the mid band i.e., 3300 MHz which is crucial in providing high throughput. The telco operators are likely to augment existing 4G capacity and provide 5G services in the 3300 MHz band.

    All four telcos acquired mm wave band i.e., 26 GHz band which can be utilised for the captive or non-public network. The 26 GHz band has high throughput but a very short range. The band is becoming popular for fixed wireless access (FWA) that can be used as an alternative to fibre in high-density/congested urban areas.

    The 5G auctions were conducted by Metal Scrap Trading Corporation (MSTC) a public sector undertaking of the government.

  • Reliance Jio adds 3.11 mn mobile subscribers in May: Trai

    Reliance Jio adds 3.11 mn mobile subscribers in May: Trai

    Mumbai: Reliance Jio added 3.11 million mobile subscribers in the month of May followed by Bharti Airtel at 1.02 million, as per subscription data by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). Vodafone Idea lost 0.75 million subscribers during the same period.

    The total number of mobile subscribers increased from 1,142.66 million to 1,145.50 million registering a growth of 0.25 per cent. The wireless subscription in urban areas increased from 623.78 million to 624.55 million and in rural areas increased from 518.88 million to 520.96 million.

    There were a total of 1145.50 active mobile subscribers (VLR subscribers) during the month. Reliance Jio had the greatest number of VLR subscribers at 383.31 million followed by Bharti Airtel at 362.18 million and Vodafone Idea at 220.04 million.

    As per data received from 664 operators in May, the total broadband subscribers increased from 788.77 million to 794.68 million. Out of which, 28.10 million were wired subscribers, 765.55 million were mobile device users and 1.03 million were fixed broadband users.

    The top five wired broadband service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm at 5.89 million, followed by Bharti Airtel at 4.74 million, BSNL at 3.82 million, Atria Convergence Technologies at 2.10 million and Hathway Cable and Datacom at 1.11 million subscribers.

    The top five wireless broadband service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm at 408.79 million, Bharti Airtel at 212.35 million, Vodafone Idea at 123.23 million, BSNL at 21.70 million and Intech Online at 0.21 million.

    The total number of wireline subscribers increased from 25.16 million to 25.23 million in May.

    The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,167.82 million to 1,170.72 million. Urban subscription grew from 646.99 million to 647.81 million and rural subscription grew from 520.82 million to 522.92 million.

  • Bharti Airtel added 17.06 mn subscribers in 2021: Trai

    Bharti Airtel added 17.06 mn subscribers in 2021: Trai

    Mumbai: Bharti Airtel’s wireless subscribers increased and stood at 17.06 million last year, as per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) performance indicator report for 2021. Its subscriber base surged from 338.71 million to 355.77 million with yearly growth rate of 5.07 per cent.

    Reliance Jio continued to be the market leader with 36 per cent market share of total wireless telephone subscriber base followed by Bharti Telemedia at 30.81 per cent. Reliance Jio added only 6.94 million subscribers during the year bringing its subscriber count from 408.77 million to 415.72 million at a growth rate of 1.70 per cent.

    On the other hand, Vodafone Idea lost 18.74 million subscribers during the year, bringing its subscriber base from 284.26 million to 265.51 million. The company saw a 6.59 per cent rate of decline.

    Reliance Jio had the greatest number of rural wireless subscribers at 179.93 million, as per the data. It was followed by Bharti Airtel at 170.15 million and Vodafone Idea at 134.33 million.

    The total number of wireless subscribers increased from 1153.77 million to 1154.62 million with a net addition of 0.85 million wireless subscribers.

    Internet penetration

    The number of internet subscribers in India increased from 795.18 million to 829.30 million, as per the report. It showed that the total number of broadband internet subscribers increased from 747.41 million to 792.08 million and the number of wireless internet subscribers increased from 769.64 million to 802.72 million.

    Out of total broadband subscribers, 26.43 million are wired broadband subscribers while 765.65 million are wireless broadband subscribers.

    More than 96 per cent of total internet subscribers use wireless mobile technology to access internet services, as per Trai data.

    The number of rural internet subscribers increased from 308.17 million to 333.10 million and the number of urban internet subscribers also increased from 487.01 million to 496.20 million.

    Reliance Jio Infocomm was the biggest internet service provider with 50.68 per cent market share and 420.28 million subscribers. It was followed by Bharti Airtel with 27.81 per cent share and 230.65 million subscribers. Vodafone Idea had 16.43 per cent share 136.25 million subscribers.

    Revenue and usage

    The average revenue per user (ARPU) from wireless subscribers in the telecom sector increased from Rs 94.87 in 2020 to Rs 108.40 an increase of 14.25 per cent.

    The share of prepaid subscribers declined from 95.21 per cent to 93.62 per cent in 2021.

    Revenue from data usage per subscriber increased from Rs 81.81 in 2020 to Rs 96.71 in 2021. The total volume of wireless data usage increased from 103,522 million GB to 135,657 million GB with a yearly growth of 31.04 per cent.

    The average revenue per user for wireless data usage per data subscriber per month has been in an upward trend since 2014 where it stood at Rs 71.25 climbing till Rs 139 in 2021.

    The average wireless data usage per wireless data subscriber per month increased from 11.76 GB during the year 2020 to 14.04 GB during the year 2021.

  • Reliance Jio adds 1.68 mn wireless subscribers in April: Trai

    Reliance Jio adds 1.68 mn wireless subscribers in April: Trai

    Mumbai: Reliance Jio added 1.68 million wireless subscribers at the end of April, as per subscription data by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). Bharti Airtel added 0.81 million wireless subscribers during the same period. Vodafone Idea lost 1.56 million wireless subscribers in April.

    The total number of wireless subscribers increased from 1,142.09 million to 1,142.66 million in April. The wireless subscription in urban areas decreased from 624.23 million to 623.78 million. However, wireless subscription in rural areas increased from 517.86 million to 518.88 million.

    As per Trai data, there were 1013.81 million active wireless subscribers during the month. Reliance Jio had the highest number of active wireless subscribers at 378.85 million followed by Bharti Airtel at 352.68 million and Vodafone Idea at 222.33 million. BSNL had 59.31 million active wireless subscribers.

    As per information received from 657 operators in April, Trai found that total broadband subscribers increased from 788.30 million to 788.77 million. The broadband subscribers comprised 759.87 million mobile device users, 27.25 million wired subscribers and 1.18 million fixed wireless subscribers.  

    The top five broadband service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm with 411.31 million subscribers, Bharti Airtel with 215.28 million subscribers, Vodafone Idea with 122.06 million subscribers, BSNL with 26.10 million subscribers and Atria Convergence with 2.08 million subscribers.

    The top five wired broadband service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm with 5.63 million subscribers, Bharti Airtel with 4.85 million subscribers, BSNL with 3.80 million subscribers, Atria Convergence with 2.08 million subscribers and Hathway Cable and Datacom with 1.11 million subscribers.

    The top five wireless broadband service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm, with 405.68 million subscribers, Bharti Airtel with 210.43 million subscribers, Vodafone Idea with 122.05 million subscribers, BSNL with 22.29 million subscribers and Intech Online with 0.21 million subscribers.

    The number of wireline subscribers increased from 24.84 million to 25.16 million in April.

    The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,166.93 million to 1,167.82 million. Urban telephone subscription decreased from 647.11 million to 646.99 million. However, rural subscription increased from 519.82 million to 520.82 million.

  • Bharti Airtel launches multiplex on Partynite metaverse platform

    Bharti Airtel launches multiplex on Partynite metaverse platform

    Mumbai: Bharti Airtel has launched a multiplex on Partynite metaverse platform. The Xstream multiplex is an extension of Airtel’s Xstream premium offering.

    Airtel’s Xstream multiplex will be a 20-screen platform with access to content from leading OTT partners available on the application. The multiplex will enable sampling of top original shows and movies with content pieces such as the first episode of an OTT original or initial minutes of a movie in regional languages, besides English and Hindi.

    The idea was conceived by Essence, Airtel’s media agency of record, and developed by Gamitronics, the creator of blockchain-powered digital parallel universe Partynite. “The Xstream multiplex offers an immersive content experience with multiple engagement layers, which allow users to interact on Partynite Metaverse,” said the statement.

    “Airtel’s Xstream multiplex provides a larger-than-life experience, which brings together Web 3.0 apps and immersive storytelling, and an assortment of content from our partners,” said Airtel director – marketing Shashwat Sharma. “We all know people’s love for movies and entertainment in India. Through the metaverse, we are looking to tap into a larger audience, giving content enthusiasts an opportunity to sample Airtel’s Xstream Premium offering and, thus, aiding in driving higher adoption.”

    “We are delighted to partner with Airtel and bring alive India’s first multiplex in the metaverse. Airtel Xstream Premium’s multiplex experience is one of the most scalable use case scenarios for the metaverse,” said Partynite (Gamitronics) founder Rajat Ojha. “Future opportunities here include movies, music, live events and premium sports streaming. Apart from the robust scope, it will also allow social engagement, open up newer methods of content delivery and, of course, provide an immersive experience at the core of it.”

    Recently Airtel reported that its OTT platform Xstream reached two million subscribers within 100 days of its launch.

  • Bharti Airtel launches new broadband plans for connected TV homes

    Bharti Airtel launches new broadband plans for connected TV homes

    Mumbai: Bharti Airtel on Monday announced the launch of new bundled plans for its home broadband customers. The highest tier plan at Rs 1,599 includes subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ Hotstar. All the plans include subscriptions to 14 OTT (over-the-top) platforms and 350 TV channels and speeds up to 300 mbps.

    The new Airtel Xstream fiber broadband plans include single-login access to the OTT platforms SonyLIV, Eros Now, Lionsgate Play, Hoichoi, ManoramaMax, ShemarooMe, Ultra, Hungama Play, EpicOn, DivoTV, Klikk, Nammaflix, Dollywood and Shorts TV for customers who purchase the Airtel 4K Hybrid TV Box.

    The home broadband market has grown by 2X while the number of OTT has jumped from 9 in 2012 to 40+ in 2021. Bharti Airtel has launched the new bundle plans keeping in mind the entertainment needs of connected TV homes.  

    Bharti Airtel CEO – homes Vir Inder Nath said, “Our new plans are built for India’s emerging entertainment needs. Through these bundle offers we plan to offer our discerning customers great value, convenience and unlock a multi-faceted digital experience.”

    “Increased broadband consumption in Indian homes has given rise to the phenomena of hybrid viewing, where families are looking to consume OTT content on the TV screen along with linear TV without the hassle of managing multiple subscriptions and devices,” he said in a statement.

  • DTH business continues to see headwinds: Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal

    DTH business continues to see headwinds: Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal

    MUMBAI: At Bharti Airtel’s fourth quarter 2022 results CEO Gopal Vittal noted that the DTH business continues to see headwinds.

    During the company’s Q4 FY22 earnings conference call, Vittal said, “While the category continues to see a significant long-term opportunity for upgradation from cable, it’s also a classic case of an industry that has been brought to its knees due to excessive regulation”.  

    “The new tariff order brought about by TRAI a few years ago mandated every miniscule aspect of pricing in an industry which was managed until then very simply through forbearance. This created an overwhelming amount of complexity for the DTH players and even more importantly for the customer with no benefit to any stakeholder”, he further elaborated.

    Vittal added, “The second aspect of skewed regulation is to do with the very same content being made available for free. This is what happens on free-to-air channels and there is, mind you, very good content in many cases here with just windowing or it is being made available on the same screen through a broadband pipe at unregulated prices. This is what happens on OTT platforms. As a result, the DTH industry has been crippled.”

    “We are glad to see that TRAI has just come out with a new consultation paper on tariffs and we hope that at the end of this consultation, regulations will be lightened so that we can focus on what we do best, keep things simple and serve customers,” he added.

    Further, talking about the results he said, “during the year the company added Rs 13,440 crores to the top line and just under Rs 8,150 crores of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization to our India business alone. Beyond these numbers, what was even more satisfying is that we grew competitively in every part of our business; mobility, broadband, DTH and Airtel business grew market share to reach lifetime highs.”

    Vittal also explained the reason behind increasing tariffs. “We challenged ourselves to find a way to expand the reach of our home broadband presence after Covid and cracked an extremely innovative partnership with thousands of local cable operators using our digital promise. We strengthened our portfolio in airtel business through innovations in cPaaS and Airtel Secure. We continue to invest over Rs 20,400 crores into CapEx across our network, data centers, submarine cable capacities, and digital. Finally, we strengthened our partnerships. Use Airtel JV, the investment into level for SD-WAN, which is a software-defined wide-area network, for blockchain, Oracle for data centers, and Google as a strategic equity partner,” he added.

     

  • Q4 FY22: Bharti Airtel posts revenues of Rs 31,500 crore

    Q4 FY22: Bharti Airtel posts revenues of Rs 31,500 crore

    Mumbai: Telecom major Bharti Airtel has reported fourth quarter FY 2022 revenues of Rs 31,500 crore, up by 22.3 per cent year-on-year. The company’s consolidated net income stood at Rs 2,008 crore.

    The company reported consolidated revenue of Rs 116,567 crore up by 20.2 per cent YoY and consolidated net income of Rs 4,255 crore.

    The company’s India business posted quarterly revenues of Rs 22,500 crore, up 22.7 per cent YoY. The company’s mobile business grew by 25.1 percent on account of increase in average revenue per user (ARPU). The ARPU for the quarter stood at Rs 178 versus Rs 145 in the corresponding quarter last year.

    The company added 21.5 million 4G customers in the last year and has surpassed over 200 million 4G customers. The average data usage per data customer stood at 18.8 Gbs/month and voice usage per customer stood at 1083 minutes. Its home business segment revenues grew by 45.8 per cent YoY and customer net additions grew by ~323K during the quarter to reach a base of 4.5 million. Its digital TV business had a customer base of 17.6 million at the end of the quarter. Airtel Business grew by 12.9 per cent YoY. Airtel reported 189 million monthly active users (MAUs) across its digital assets including Thanks, Mynk and Xstream.

    “This has been another quarter to cap a full year of consistent and competitive performance across our portfolio,” said Bharti Airtel MD and CEO India and South Asia Gopal Vittal. “Our consolidated revenues for the quarter grew by 5.5 per cent and EBITDA margins expanded to 50.8 per cent, underscoring our focus on all round delivery. The mobile business revenues were up 9.5 per cent as we saw the full flow through of tariff increase. Airtel continues to have the highest ARPU at Rs 178. Our Homes and enterprise business continue to exhibit very strong growth momentum, reflecting the resilience of our overall portfolio. Our strong balance sheet and cash flows have enabled us to further repay some of our spectrum liabilities ahead of schedule and improve our leverage.”

    He further said, “We continue to remain optimistic about the opportunities in the coming years and believe we are well poised as a company for three reasons. First, our ability to execute consistently to a simple strategy of winning with quality customers and delivering the best experience to them. Second, our future proofed business model with massive investments in both infrastructure and digital capabilities. Finally, our financial prudence backed by our strong governance focus.”

  • Vodafone Idea loses 2.81 million wireless subscribers in March: Trai

    Vodafone Idea loses 2.81 million wireless subscribers in March: Trai

    Mumbai: Bharti Airtel added 2.25 million wireless subscribers in the month of March, as per data by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). Reliance Jio added 1.26 million wireless subscribers and Vodafone Idea lost 2.81 million wireless subscribers during the same period, the data revealed.

    The total number of wireless subscribers increased from 1141.53 million to 1142.09 million in March. The wireless subscription in urban areas decreased from 625.19 million to 624.23 million, however, wireless subscription in rural areas increased from 516.34 million to 517.86 million during the same period.

    As per Trai data, there were 1021.29 million active wireless subscribers during the month of March accounting for 89.42 per cent of the total wireless subscriber base. Reliance Jio had 378.95 million active wireless subscribers followed by Bharti Airtel at 355.78 million and Vodafone Idea at 226.08 million. BSNL had 59.82 million active wireless subscribers.

    As per information from 653 operators, Trai reported an increase in total broadband subscribers from 783.37 million to 788.30 million in March. Out of these, 759.87 million were mobile device users, 27.25 million were wired subscribers and 1.18 million were fixed wireless subscribers i.e. Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Max, Point-to-Point and VSAT (very small aperture terminal).

    The top five broadband service providers were Reliance Jio at 409.28 million, Bharti Airtel at 215.27 million, Vodafone Idea at 122.48 million, BSNL at 27.19 million and Atria Convergence at 2.08 million and accounted for 98.48 per cent of the market.

    The top five wired broadband service providers were Reliance Jio at 5.28 million, Bharti Airtel at 4.53 million, BSNL at 3.85 million, Atria Convergence Technologies at 2.08 million and Hathway Cable and Datacom at 1.11 million.

    The top five wireless broadband service providers were Reliance Jio at 403.99 million, Bharti Airtel at 210.75 million, Vodafone Idea at 122.48 million, BSNL at 23.34 million and Intech Online at 0.21 million.

    The number of telephone subscribers increased from 1166.05 million to 1166.93 million. Urban telephone subscriptions decreased from 647.76 million to 647.11 million and rural subscriptions increased from 518.29 million to 519.82 million in March.

    Wireline subscribers increased from 24.52 million to 24.84 million in March.

  • Reliance Jio loses 9.3 million wireless subscribers in January: Trai

    Reliance Jio loses 9.3 million wireless subscribers in January: Trai

    Mumbai: Telecom major Reliance Jio lost 9.3 million wireless subscribers at the end of January, as per subscription data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). 

    Bharti Airtel added 714,199 wireless subscribers during the same period. Vodafone Idea and BSNL lost 389,082 and 377,520 wireless subscribers, respectively at the end of January, the data revealed.

    The total wireless subscribers decreased from 1,154.62 million to 1,145.24 million at the end of January. The wireless subscription in urban areas decreased from 633.34 million to 627.12 million. Similarly, rural subscriptions also declined from 521.28 million to 518.13 million during the same period.

    According to Trai, there were 1006.57 million active wireless subscribers in the month of January out of which Reliance Jio had 368.53 million, Bharti Airtel had 349.99 million, Vodafone Idea had 228.81 million and BSNL had 58.64 million active subscribers.

    During the month, as per information received from 616 broadband operators, Trai reported a decrease in broadband subscribers from 792.08 million to 783.43 million. Out of these, 26.65 million were wired subscribers, 755.66 million were wireless subscribers and 1.12 million were fixed wireless subscribers i.e., Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Max, point-to-point radio, and VSAT.

    The top five broadband service providers constituted 98.46 per cent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of January. These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd at 411.23 million, Bharti Airtel at 210.75 million, Vodafone Idea at 121.08 million, BSNL at 26.25 million, and Atria Convergence at 2.04 million subscribers.

    The top five wired broadband service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd at 4.83 million, Bharti Airtel at 4.33 million, BSNL at 3.90 million, Atria Convergence Technologies at 2.04 million, and Hathway Cable & Datacom at 1.10 million subscribers.

    The top five wireless broadband service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd at 406.39 million, Bharti Airtel at 206.42 million, Vodafone Idea at 121.07 million, BSNL at 22.35 million, and Intech Online at 0.21 million subscribers.  

    The total number of telephone subscribers in India decreased from 1178.41 million to 1169.46 million. Urban telephone subscriptions decreased from 655.20 million to 649.38 million and rural subscriptions decreased from 523.21 million to 520.08 million.

    Wireline subscribers increased from 23.79 million to 24.21 million at the end of January.